WEC Design Optimization

Wave energy converter (WEC) designs to date have mostly followed a traditional design/build/test approach that requires potentially costly iteration. This approach, illustrated in the upper half of Figure 1, limits the performance of end designs due to its iterative and expensive nature. This project will create an open-source tool that will allow WEC designers to apply a more synchronous design workflow and leverage optimization. By incorporating an efficient model for constrained optimal WEC control, this tool empowers developers to execute WEC design optimization, enabling both the performance improvements and enhanced design space understanding known to be delivered by optimization. The project plan calls for both general research and development to benefit the broad range of WEC devices as well as collaboration with an individual industry developer to perform a case-study using the “WEC Design Optimization Tool.”

Link to source code and documentation.

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